The "Official" Ranking of FromSoftware Souls Games

[00:00:00] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the Pre-Order Bonus podcast. I'm one of your hosts Cameron Warren and I'm joined as always by the pixel professor Jacob Price. Jake, how you doing?

[00:00:23] Doing well. Glad that nickname stuck around. I've been playing a lot of interesting games lately and I've actually finished some games too which is always a good feeling.

[00:00:34] I also rage quit one game. It doesn't happen too often but it did. Rage quit? What game did you rage quit?

[00:00:42] Listen, I got this what looked like to just be a fun platformer. It has a bunch of stages in it that are supposed to be short and easy. It's a sequel actually. It's called Read 2. It was like five bucks.

[00:00:58] Came out this year and rage quit man. I think I beat 12 or 13 levels and I was like I'm not having fun. The precision here is insane. I don't understand the hit boxes so I just quit.

[00:01:15] You know sometimes you just gotta quit. I respect it. I quit a lot of games.

[00:01:21] Good. You have a lot of self respect then.

[00:01:27] Yes I have very very little patience. Major gaming ADHD. Yeah I've been playing a teeny bit of cyberpunk because I know you've been playing that so just kind of refreshing myself so we can do a little episode on that hopefully pretty soon.

[00:01:43] And then a little bit of Total War Warhammer 3 which I dipped into a while back when that came out. It was actually on Game Pass for a while. They came out with a new expansion with some cool mechanics in it including one of which where you play as the dwarf Malachy M'Kyson.

[00:02:09] What a name. What a name right? And his whole shtick is that he has an airship with cannons on it and like bombs so when you're in like your battles his special abilities he can call the airship in and you can literally like carpet bomb these like medieval armies and it's pretty dope.

[00:02:33] Yeah that sounds pretty dope. Is it like an OP like hey just call in reinforcements take them all out?

[00:02:40] Yeah it's like you're fighting like the rat armies and I was in like an ambush and then I called in my giant blimp and it was like World War II explosives on this rat army. Yeah it's cool that's a very very cinematic game if you ever wanted to play like the Lord of the Rings Return of the King battle in real time. That's like as close as you're going to get.

[00:03:08] Ooh that's probably the best pitch ever for that game.

[00:03:13] The only thing is it's pretty tough as all these like strategy games big learning curve lots of like micromanagement which can get a teeny bit off putting but I'm one of those people who just every now and again I'll sink like 10-15 hours into it and then I'll be like ah it's just too complicated and then I'll back out but anyway.

[00:03:34] Okay. Yep. Other than that just kind of waiting around I think my next big game is going to be Hellblade 2 probably.

[00:03:43] Hellblade 2 is coming out in less than a week now. I'm listen Hellblade 1 is a fantastic game I really liked it and Hellblade 1 looks awesome and I kind of think Hellblade 2 has the chance of being one of the best looking games from the current gen right like I feel like it should be taken advantage of everything the series X or your PC can offer.

[00:04:10] Did you see the on social media as part of their marketing campaign which has finally hit they showed off the photo mode have you looked at that.

[00:04:18] That's insane yeah it's ridiculous.

[00:04:20] Did that photo mode is.

[00:04:22] It's.

[00:04:24] How many how many hours of labor do you think went into creating.

[00:04:29] I mean probably a lot because that game has been in development for like six years and it's like an eight hour game so not saying that length is the ultimate determiner of like you know whatever but it's relatively content like compared to like the scope of a lot of games that take that long to make so anyway.

[00:04:48] Yeah.

[00:04:50] Yeah. Oh and I wanted to point out I'm always on the lookout for games coming out of Latin America today May 15th there's a game that I've been following for a while now and I didn't realize that it was launching today.

[00:05:04] It's called deep beyond it's five dollars on steam.

[00:05:07] It's a just it's pretty much a visual narrative but the art styles what really drew my attention.

[00:05:14] It's from an Argentinian studio I wanted to give it a quick shout out because it came out and it looks amazing and it's going to get buried in all the games that are coming out in May May this May is insane for just indie game releases and game releases broadly.

[00:05:28] And I think every game is getting buried but that was one that I saw I was like ooh going to check this out five bucks looked really cool.

[00:05:37] And also been playing animal well which Jake you have been praising as probably one of the best games of the year.

[00:05:46] Yeah. Oh man animal well I just rolled credits on it last night.

[00:05:53] Just to get the credits is pretty short it took me six hours most people are landing somewhere between five and 10 hours.

[00:05:59] Yeah, listen folks you're seeing animal well on tons of end of year lists, a bunch of outlets are going to give it indie game of the year award like I'm convinced.

[00:06:08] It is extremely refreshing and creative for the Metroidvania genre.

[00:06:15] But there's a ton of secrets in there so I'm not going to say much more beyond that.

[00:06:19] We will save that for a later date.

[00:06:24] Last thing I want to mention on new stuff is the Assassin's Creed Shadow official announcement and cinematic trailer Jake, this is really doing it for me.

[00:06:39] Oh yeah.

[00:06:42] The whole vibe of just like the setting Feudal Japan which has been like a dream setting for Assassin's Creed fans for years and years and years now and then obviously we got Ghosts of Tsushima so it's like well do we really need this game, but they're kind of doing their own thing a little bit right they got the samurai dude

[00:07:00] and then they got the shinobi dude and it's dual protagonists open world like feudal kind of city scapes as well as like sort of open and it's like an upgraded version of the engine is from the same team as Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Assassin's Creed Syndicate.

[00:07:18] The marketing for this it's going super hard.

[00:07:21] I hope I hope this game is really I'm really excited for this.

[00:07:24] I really hope the gameplay they just knock it out of the park there and it's coming November 15th which is wild.

[00:07:31] We're getting outlaws in August turn around and you're getting an Assassin's Creed game two huge open world games from Ubisoft within like a three month span.

[00:07:42] Yeah and I want to reiterate and way back in our predictions episode and if you're new to the podcast at the beginning of every year we do a predictions episode whoever gets the most predictions in a year forces the other host to play a game that year.

[00:07:56] Cameron you had a prediction related to Ubisoft it was what was it they would have three smash hit maybe not smash it but three like super well received games was that it am I paraphrasing wrong.

[00:08:09] Yeah I think I said they'll have three critically acclaimed titles and this will be like a banner year for Ubisoft.

[00:08:15] So yeah so like if outlaws hits and Assassin's Creed shadow hits like this is going to be and they've already had Prince of Persia which was amazing.

[00:08:33] Yeah so this would be an incredible year for Ubisoft if those two games hit and they look really good man like the marketing has been really great like.

[00:08:44] Yeah like the Star Wars vibes and then you got this like really crazy cool Assassin you know samurai vibes with like yeah I mean these are these games are oozing coolness so I'm hoping for the best.

[00:09:04] Still optimistic and I would say that substantiated right I agree with you I think Star Wars outlaws is looking cool for sure the story reveal that we got a few weeks ago definitely was interesting right it's getting attention it's grabbing people's attention.

[00:09:22] And then now you know Assassin's Creed shadows and like you said this is this is a setting that people have been asking for forever and it'll be cool to see how they deliver on it.

[00:09:31] But yeah I don't know you could you could get that prediction this could be a banner year for them.

[00:09:37] I mean my only thing I'll say about Assassin's Creed is that the last couple have not really hit for me. I did like Odyssey but I didn't love it.

[00:09:47] I liked origins but I didn't love it. I didn't super love Valhalla.

[00:09:53] They all had like kind of cool settings and like looked really good and so I'm going in a bit trepidatious in the sense that nothing has really hit for me as much as Black Flag.

[00:10:03] Black Flag just was so I just I love that game so much and nothing has been able to live up to that.

[00:10:11] And so I'm hoping that they can finally now do it with this. They seem poised to like with this setting and like all the cool stuff that they could do with it but anyways yeah games dude exciting.

[00:10:24] Hold on that reminds me Ubisoft did have Skull and Bones come out this year.

[00:10:29] Insane how quickly that faded from the conversation. Oh my gosh Skull and Bones came out. Can you believe it? It came out. That game you can play that game right now.

[00:10:40] Right now and it's a quadruple A $70 game. It's just dead right like it's dead.

[00:10:49] I haven't seen a single and I mean when I say a single person talk about that game. No one.

[00:10:57] It came out it didn't do well and then crickets right. I mean listen I played the beta trial and I will say Skull and Bones is not a bad game.

[00:11:08] It's not a bad game but it's not quadruple A one because that category is totally made up and no game will ever hit those standards right.

[00:11:16] But two there was no way on earth I would pay a $70 entry fee to play that game.

[00:11:23] I think Skull and Bones they got to pull an Overwatch and pivot to a free-to-play model because it is set up like a free-to-play game.

[00:11:31] And it's fun but it's not it's not what they wanted it to be. It's not what they were hoping it would be. It's not what they were marketing it to be.

[00:11:42] I think all in all last thing I'll say about the news is that this year was I think kind of started off people thinking like this is sort of a light year and then we figured out that Switch 2 is definitely not coming out.

[00:11:55] But it's looking more and more I mean there's stuff coming out of the woodwork and there's still going to be a lot more stuff announced like in June.

[00:12:07] And now we've got two massive Ubisoft games. We've got Indiana Jones. We've got a lot of stuff coming out in fall dude like between that and then what's the one coming out in August that dart the souls like? Monkey.

[00:12:23] Oh that I have on my fantasy critic.

[00:12:26] Dude I'm like I can visualize it right now.

[00:12:30] What the heck is that game called?

[00:12:31] Wukong.

[00:12:32] Wukong yeah Wukong not fallen dynasty. That's the other game or maybe it is. I can't remember.

[00:12:40] Anyway no I mean and then with animal came out and we had Hades 2 and then we had Final Fantasy you know seven rebirth this year like dude this is I mean gaming doesn't slow down I guess.

[00:12:55] Yeah honestly we're easing up on the gas I think for a few weeks.

[00:13:02] The end of May until Elden Ring Shadow of the Urchardy DLC comes out. We don't know much about July but we do have a fairly good idea of how the fall is shaping up which is interesting right and I agree I think the second half of this year is going to be absolutely slammed.

[00:13:17] We got the Xbox showcase which I am confident they're going to tell us probably release dates for like Indiana Jones avowed.

[00:13:26] So there's some big things coming absolutely and I think the last half like the latter half excuse me this year is going to be really incredible so get get your games on in now right get your gaming and this is I feel like this is almost like your last chance to touch your backlog.

[00:13:44] Because I think we're going to get hit with a ton of things and then listen if like call me crazy here but if Hollow Knight Silksong shows up over the summer all hell is breaking loose.

[00:13:56] That game has to come that game is coming out this year. I swear to you that game is coming out this year if that doesn't come out to this year I think that's crazy.

[00:14:07] I just think that is just sheer insanity. Yeah I guess the only thing I could maybe see is it doesn't come out this year but it comes out in like January.

[00:14:16] That's even then no way. Yeah.

[00:14:21] They told Xbox that this game that has so it's like was coming out at the end of 2023.

[00:14:28] Can you just get away with that any chance they shadow drop at the Xbox presentation.

[00:14:33] How do they do this shadow drop a thing anymore since high fire rush.

[00:14:40] Too soon sorry it's the body so I I honestly think no I don't think it drops because Hollow Knight Silksong is a big enough in such hotly anticipated game that it might even contend with some of Xbox's first party titles.

[00:14:58] Oh absolutely it's it's triple A at this point like it could be main stage anyway. Yeah oh yeah yeah yeah so I don't think Xbox does that to themselves but I don't know Xbox is pretty good at aiming the barrel of the gun right at their own feet.

[00:15:12] They love setting rakes right in front of their feet and just snap it down real hard.

[00:15:18] Well Jake with that let's move into our topic of the show. This is a special one off episode where we, the pre order bonus podcast give the unequivocal official ranking of from soft souls like video games.

[00:15:35] This is the official ranking. There is no other ranking in existence that is officially sanctioned by the heads of the video game board of the world.

[00:15:46] The United Nations of gaming rules has sanctioned this list as the only list, the unequivocal list.

[00:15:56] Jake let's start off and actually we don't have a joint list we're going to each give our own ranking so these are both the unequivocally sanctioned list that'll be probably in wildly different order.

[00:16:10] Let's start off Jake what is your there wait Jake set some ground rules give me some details yeah yeah.

[00:16:16] I'm going to set some rules really quickly so we are talking about from software souls games only or souls likes I should say so essentially the majority of from software's major titles starting with Demon Souls which technically released in 2009.

[00:16:33] Cameron and I have both played the remake so that's the version that we will be considering and then just moving right along the Dark Souls trilogy Bloodborne Sekiro and Elden Ring.

[00:16:44] So those are the ones that will be covering as a default Cameron hasn't played Dark Souls 2 and Dark Souls 2 would be ranked at the bottom.

[00:16:53] So that was at the bottom guys that's our number six there we go nobody is surprised anywhere and then from there what we're going to do is we'll work our way from five to one now I went way too hard.

[00:17:08] I went way too hard I typed up a document for myself Cameron's just going to do this normally I'm going to do this.

[00:17:16] A normally I guess right I'm going to use criteria and this is all subjective but based on the bosses the game offers the world design slash art direction level design and combat mechanics to justify my rankings yeah yours is way smarter than mine your.

[00:17:35] Let me send this to you real quick I'll send this to you real quick you can look at it if you want to but again we have different lists between the two of us if you've been listening for a long time you know that I'm I'm a die hard Souls fan.

[00:17:47] So that's what I'll be thinking about as as we sort of go ahead and do this you're going to hear some hot takes.

[00:17:57] I didn't do a formal structure but I'm going to do my best to communicate my rationale for my ranking this is that's all we ask and that is what we're going to do yes oh very last thing I do want to shout out one of our Patreon subs so Anthony I hope you're listening to this

[00:18:22] Anthony reached out forever ago asking for us to do something on Dark Souls 1 and I responded said that we'll probably do something like a ranking list and this is finally coming out so this is for you and all the other Souls fans out there.

[00:18:36] Alright let's start so we're starting at bottom of the of your top five Cameron what would be number five for you.

[00:18:45] Yeah I think I debated this quite a bit but ultimately I'm going to have to give number five to Dark Souls 1.

[00:19:00] Oh dude starting out with a spicy take right off the bat.

[00:19:06] Hopefully you're still tuned in dude Cameron please explain this to us please.

[00:19:11] So I think Dark Souls 1 is obviously right I mean Demon's Souls is technically the first game technically that kind of incepted this whole I mean an entire genre of video games at this point right like souls likes.

[00:19:29] Yeah.

[00:19:32] But Dark Souls was really like the breakout that was like oh my gosh if you played Dark Souls it was like the word of mouth like this game is crazy I mean I heard of this game like many many years ago and was one of those people, one of those plebes who jumped into Dark Souls 1 several years ago when it was like first taking on the gaming world and people were kind of starting to talk about it but it was this niche thing.

[00:19:55] And I bounced off it super hard I didn't get it right I didn't understand it and I'm like a lot of people like right.

[00:20:02] But, so this is going to reveal my next pick, but I think because they remastered Demon's Souls.

[00:20:14] Getting a chance to play Demon's Souls remaster with a teeny bit of the jank removed which maybe you could argue like the jank the jank is definitely part of the appeal of these games right.

[00:20:26] But I think having played Dark Souls 1 and obviously they remastered Dark Souls 1 but I didn't think that remaster was anything close to what was done by for the Demon's Souls remaster.

[00:20:36] And having played that like in the modern era on the PS5 I had to give the nod to Demon's Souls for you know next up in the rankings.

[00:20:48] And Dark Souls 1 just fell down for me and you'll see why as I give the rest of my rankings but yeah I mean obviously you know it's an incredible game but when you compare it and pit it against the other games from FromSauce.

[00:21:06] For me it just fell down lower and lower on the list as I looked at the rest of the offerings and so that's my pick Dark Souls.

[00:21:14] Oh dude holy cow I like your rationale there though and folks I gotta apologize there's actually seven games that qualify so this is number six for each of us because Dark Souls 2 is out that's number seven.

[00:21:27] I'll give my two cents on Dark Souls 1 in a bit but putting it down there at the bottom slot here next or right above yeah okay okay okay.

[00:21:40] For me the bottom ranking of the games that we're doing is Demon's Souls.

[00:21:46] Demon's Souls.

[00:21:48] Oh.

[00:21:49] So Demon's Souls remake.

[00:21:54] Let me get the positive out of the way.

[00:21:56] I believe is still like a top three best looking current gen game, and it was a remake that launched with the PS5.

[00:22:06] In sort of my estimation I feel like in video games there are three things that are extremely difficult to recreate and that would be water, fire, and hair.

[00:22:15] And you know what I mean like it's something that looks gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous and then you see the fire or the water and you're like dang.

[00:22:25] Demon's Souls remake has the best fire I think I've ever seen in a video game. It looks incredible.

[00:22:30] It's got that dense sort of damp atmosphere the really oppressive atmosphere that Souls games are really known for.

[00:22:38] However, my biggest grudge against Demon's Souls is its pacing like I think it's

[00:22:49] And in the world, the way that it's designed right is that it's old school worlds and then level within worlds so you can refer to things as like 1-2, 5-3, etc.

[00:23:00] And that way of organizing this world is clunky.

[00:23:06] I don't think it feels good and it makes for difficulty pacing with like enemy health and bosses.

[00:23:14] I think it just throws it like it's supposed to be super ordered but it doesn't.

[00:23:19] I think it kind of really does a disservice to the game because once you get past the sort of 1-1 tier, you can just steamroll the game super quickly.

[00:23:31] Yeah, I don't know. I think it's a great game.

[00:23:35] As far as the different categories I put here, boss design, I think, and I have the advantage of having played this game recently.

[00:23:45] I don't think there's very many bosses that really stand out to me as interesting in their mechanics.

[00:23:52] In their design, sure, lots of cool ones.

[00:23:55] World design is very cool, but it lacks the cohesive world structure that other Souls games bring to the table.

[00:24:03] And so it feels lackluster even though each of them are kind of cool like each of the levels individually.

[00:24:09] Level design, holy cow, Demon's Souls is such a slog.

[00:24:16] Like it's a slog to play through.

[00:24:19] Bonfires are super far away. Level design doesn't feel intuitive like at all.

[00:24:24] Hope, dude, I cannot stand Prison of Hope.

[00:24:28] Most of actually that whole Tower of Boletaria. Not a fan of that at all.

[00:24:33] And then combat mechanics, fine. They're slow as heck but I think they're fine.

[00:24:38] So for me, bottom of the pile. Demon's Souls remake no matter how good it looks.

[00:24:43] Yeah, I mean I think that takes us straight into my number five pick which is Demon's Souls.

[00:24:49] And this is just piggybacking right off what you were saying.

[00:24:53] I'm coming at it from less of a hardcore perspective for sure.

[00:24:58] Okay, so in my view, the grander populace, if these were the only video games in the world,

[00:25:08] Demon's Souls is going to be more appealing to your average person playing video games because of the production.

[00:25:16] Because production is important.

[00:25:20] You can have an incredible game with immaculate design,

[00:25:24] but if it's just black and white pixels on a screen, people are not really going to enjoy it that much.

[00:25:31] Even though there are incredible indie games that are literally like that.

[00:25:35] They're just the most basic.

[00:25:38] You can make a pretty incredible game with an Excel spreadsheet, like a great strategy game.

[00:25:43] But it's the production behind it that gives it sort of that magic.

[00:25:47] And I think the magic and the feeling of just playing and experiencing with the graphics and the production

[00:25:55] and the work that they did on the facelift for Demon's Souls,

[00:25:58] I think just makes it a bit of a more appealing entry than Dark Souls 1 to be honest.

[00:26:04] Just from a peer reception, I hear what you're saying about mechanics and maybe boss design,

[00:26:10] but for me, I think it still just barely edges it out in the sense that

[00:26:16] if I'm going to pick a game to play right now in 2024,

[00:26:23] I think I'm way more likely to just pick that one up.

[00:26:26] And also, there is something I actually appreciate about the slightly more condensed nature of Demon's Souls,

[00:26:34] which is a bit controversial because of how Revolutionary Dark Souls is and was in its design.

[00:26:42] But I actually appreciate it maybe a little bit more of the linearity of Demon's Souls

[00:26:47] and kind of the more packaged box, even though that leads to some negative things also.

[00:26:53] But look, we're talking about the bottom of the list, but that's my number five.

[00:26:58] OK, I think that's I think that's well substantiated.

[00:27:02] Why and how you feel that way? All right, here comes here comes my spicy take of the night.

[00:27:07] Next one I have above Demon's Souls remake is Bloodborne.

[00:27:14] Cameron's choking right now.

[00:27:17] Wow, you thought my take was spicy? Jake, this is this is this is a Travis.

[00:27:24] This is oh my Cameron is over here.

[00:27:27] He's about to flip a table.

[00:27:30] Yeah, this podcast just got canceled.

[00:27:32] We're canceled, dude. Like shut it down.

[00:27:35] Just shut down the whole podcast.

[00:27:37] Folks, I love Bloodborne. Bloodborne is fantastic.

[00:27:40] Let me give you a few asterisks when I come to this.

[00:27:44] I have played through Bloodborne once.

[00:27:46] I want to play through Bloodborne another time and I want to do all of the optional bosses and everything.

[00:27:53] When I played through Bloodborne, I did some of the optional areas.

[00:27:58] I didn't do the DLC. OK, so just to get that out of the out of the way.

[00:28:03] Now, please go listen to our Bloodborne episode where I talk about this more in length.

[00:28:08] But essentially part of this is really subjective.

[00:28:12] The world design. Yes, I understand it is super fantastic, like objectively.

[00:28:16] So it's really cool.

[00:28:18] It does something really awesome with sort of romantic era philosophy and thinking and with sort of Victorian Victorian era and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[00:28:30] OK, but Bloodborne to me is very much a transitional fundamental game to from software's sort of philosophy when it comes to game design.

[00:28:41] But it has growing pains.

[00:28:43] And I think that is notable in the game.

[00:28:46] And I think it's notable, particularly in the second half of the main line bosses where they just fall flat for me.

[00:28:55] I think even the diehard Bloodborne fans will agree that the Mikolash boss fight is not that fun.

[00:29:03] It's not that great.

[00:29:05] And even the one reborn is fine, but it does feel like Tower Knight sort of rehash from Demon's Souls remake.

[00:29:12] And Murgo's Wet Nurse, I think, is a fine boss fight.

[00:29:17] But they just kind of fell off for me the second half of the game.

[00:29:21] I think like in terms of combat mechanics for me, I do feel like Bloodborne is actually does actually better combat mechanics and some of the games I'm going to rank above it because it is different.

[00:29:33] It is hyper aggressive, which I think is really good.

[00:29:35] Having a ranged parry with a gun, I think is a very cool mechanic.

[00:29:39] And just this sort of need to really focus on what you're doing to get a backstab like a critical backstab in and stagger bosses and enemies, I think is super well done.

[00:29:51] And I think the combat is super.

[00:29:53] It takes quite quite a lot of adjustment if you used to other Souls games.

[00:29:57] And I think the combat is really fantastic and top tier.

[00:30:00] I think level design is really fantastic, but it is super convoluted.

[00:30:05] I think some areas of this game and I know people are going to rag on me for this.

[00:30:09] Go for it. Send me everything you got.

[00:30:11] But as cool as like old Yharnam looks and as some of these areas look and feel, there's like no visual clarity in this game.

[00:30:22] And that is just too much of a labyrinth.

[00:30:24] I think they're super convoluted.

[00:30:26] And I don't know, navigating them doesn't feel good.

[00:30:29] I already talked about boss design.

[00:30:31] I think the first half of the mainland bosses are fantastic.

[00:30:33] I did like the witch of hemlock, which I felt was like a whatever boss like folks.

[00:30:39] I'm sorry. I did not love a lot of bloodborne bosses world design art direction.

[00:30:43] I think, like I said, objectively amazing subjectively not my favorite, even though I can understand the rationale for why things look the way that they do.

[00:30:54] OK, yeah. So I've kind of touched on all my criteria there, but near the bottom of the pile for me.

[00:30:59] Bloodborne interesting choice.

[00:31:09] Wildly, wildly.

[00:31:12] This is a wild podcast, folks.

[00:31:14] Next up for me is Dark Souls 3.

[00:31:18] OK, Dark Souls 3 was the first Dark Souls game.

[00:31:26] Jake, obviously you think so you kind of got me into it.

[00:31:30] It got me broken into this genre because it does like a such a better job at like getting the player acclimated to like, OK, here's what you got to do.

[00:31:39] You still have to watch like a thousand YouTube videos to kind of get your hand around it.

[00:31:45] But I at least kind of finally broke through it.

[00:31:48] But at the same time, I just didn't the world like didn't really capture me.

[00:31:53] I think it has a lot better like production than obviously the two games that are before it.

[00:31:59] Combat is fun and like bosses are and there's some really cool bosses in there.

[00:32:04] But it just the whole package like again, this is all in comparison to the other, you know, from soft games on the list.

[00:32:12] As a game, a game on its own, like incredible, undeniably incredible game.

[00:32:16] But yeah, it just didn't quite work for me as well as the other games.

[00:32:23] Unless sometimes combat felt a little bit slow, as with Elden Ring, but Elden Ring is not nearly as, you know, obtuse.

[00:32:33] This is like the whole debate of the obtusiveness of these of the Dark Souls games and like the story content.

[00:32:45] It's really thick in Dark Souls 3. It's extremely thick.

[00:32:49] It's like thicker than any of the other titles.

[00:32:51] Well, aside from the ones that we already talked about.

[00:32:55] And I found out like off putting and I realized that that's sort of what people like about some of the story stuff.

[00:33:02] And I just I just didn't love that bosses world and like all the other stuff.

[00:33:08] It just didn't add up for me the way that the other games do in the series.

[00:33:11] And so for that reason, that's my number four.

[00:33:16] OK, Dark Souls 3.

[00:33:19] Well, folks, if you didn't like me for Wario put Bloodborne, you're not going to like me for putting DS1 right above it.

[00:33:28] Listen, DS1, Dark Souls 1, obviously is a super important video game in the history of video games.

[00:33:38] It's an incredibly important game in the history of From Software and Souls games.

[00:33:43] But I want to ask this question.

[00:33:45] Do we want to believe that From Software has never improved on their games in the last 15 years?

[00:33:54] Dark Souls 1 is nearly 15 years old and as much as Dark Souls 1 deserves the praise that it gets,

[00:34:03] it's still a thing of the past.

[00:34:07] And it was something that was built upon like it is foundational for a lot of the Souls games that we love and enjoy today.

[00:34:14] But I just think it's kind of silly to ignore some of its flaws.

[00:34:19] Right. And so I'm going to talk about what I love about it and what I think some of its flaws.

[00:34:23] So I think boss design, there are some really cool and very memorable bosses in Dark Souls 1.

[00:34:32] Obviously the final boss fight is awesome.

[00:34:38] Finding Gwynn, very cool.

[00:34:40] Simone Ornstein, that dual boss fight, which so many of us got hung up on in our first playthrough.

[00:34:46] Despite the jank, it was remarkable to see like a dual boss fight being used sort of in that way.

[00:34:54] Shoot, I even like the when you're in the painted world, that boss, I'm blanking on her name.

[00:35:00] But there are lots of really cool boss fights in here.

[00:35:03] But there are also, let's be honest, boss fights that really just suck.

[00:35:06] Capra Demon boss fight sucks.

[00:35:08] It's not fun.

[00:35:11] Bed of Chaos is a gimmick fight that is just painful in part because running back to redo it is so painful.

[00:35:21] Right.

[00:35:22] That whole area of lost Izalith, I actually like I think it's Centipede Demon, that boss fight that's down there.

[00:35:28] Ceaseless Discharge, which who came up with that name for a boss?

[00:35:33] First of all, that's disgusting.

[00:35:35] But like, I don't know, Dark Souls can be pretty gross.

[00:35:38] Folks, I just think the boss quality is way too uneven in Dark Souls 1 to consider it like one of From Software's best games.

[00:35:45] Right.

[00:35:46] When it comes, however, to world design, I think Dark Souls 1 does knock it out of the park.

[00:35:52] And it's such a shame.

[00:35:55] I mean, the game is sort of divided in two halves when you before and after the Lordvessel, when the second half of a bunch of areas sort of open up.

[00:36:03] And frankly, I think this level design is actually quite unmatched except for maybe in Elden Ring.

[00:36:10] This is like a pseudo or proto open world that's kind of cleanly split between two halves of the game.

[00:36:17] And I just think that that sort of design is freaking incredible.

[00:36:21] And as much as I hate Capra Demon and Taurus Demon, I think is whatever that sort of starting quote unquote, like tutorial area of like undead settlement,

[00:36:30] I think is actually really fantastically designed to introduce you into how to play a Souls game.

[00:36:37] And so I think the world design and the pacing in a proto open world game, I think is an impossible task to pull off.

[00:36:43] Like it's so hard to pull off pacing in open world games and truly open world games.

[00:36:47] And I just kind of think that Dark Souls 1 hits the sweet spot there when it comes to level design.

[00:36:53] I also think this is a little uneven. Like I said, I think Lost Izalith is just like not that fun or exciting.

[00:37:00] Sen's Fortress the first time you do it is an absolute pain in the butt and I hated it with a passion.

[00:37:06] But upon subsequent playthroughs, I grew to love Sen's Fortress. Everybody loves Anor Londo.

[00:37:12] And I think for good reason, I think the Painted World, I think of Aramis, it's called in this game.

[00:37:16] I always get that one in the Dark Souls 3 one mixed up.

[00:37:18] The Painted World, I think is beautifully designed in terms of the level.

[00:37:23] And then Combat Mechanics, I think they're really fantastic.

[00:37:26] And again, they lay the groundwork for things to come later.

[00:37:29] So I do love a lot about Dark Souls 1, but I do think that we love looking at that with rose tinted glasses.

[00:37:36] And again, I ask the question, do we really believe that From Software hasn't improved on the Souls formula in the last 15 years?

[00:37:43] And I think most of us might realize that we think that they have improved.

[00:37:50] I rest my case.

[00:37:52] Seems fair to me.

[00:37:54] Nice, OK.

[00:37:56] I'll give my next one, Jake, and it is this is where it's getting kind of tough.

[00:38:02] Yeah, it gets really tough.

[00:38:04] It gets really dicey here.

[00:38:06] But ultimately, my next pick is going to have to be Bloodborne.

[00:38:13] OK, let's hear it.

[00:38:16] Yeah, so I do think Bloodborne unequivocally has one of the best world designs of probably any video game ever made.

[00:38:32] Nice.

[00:38:33] World design and what I mean by that is like setting environmental storytelling, just the whole feeling of how everything comes together.

[00:38:43] The whole Gothic horror situation going on in that game is just astounding.

[00:38:53] And it's like how far they go with it and how it all works together in the design of the monsters, in the settings, in the sounds,

[00:39:05] in the way that combat works as compared to the other games with your main character, how you parry using like a fricking musket pistol.

[00:39:14] Like all that stuff just comes together in a package that like you mentioned, I mean it's it's undeniably just stratospheric and like what it did in that sense and just creating like a lived in world.

[00:39:28] That was so unique and so dark and like scary and kind of like effective and what it did and what it does.

[00:39:38] But yeah, I mean, I think I think it lives here because of what they've done in like the next two games that I'll talk about.

[00:39:50] I do think it has I think I like the combat in Bloodborne better than a lot of from soft games.

[00:39:58] I think it's it's faster.

[00:40:00] I like the the one thing I don't like is the the parry with the pistol is imprecise to say the least.

[00:40:11] So like it makes combat sometimes feel like there's an element of randomness that I don't really like in games where precise combat is like the whole name of the game.

[00:40:20] Like it's all about like skill and pattern recognition.

[00:40:24] I do like the speed and like the feeling of the characters and how that all comes together.

[00:40:29] And then just like the freaky crazy weapon builds and these like gothic horror web like just the whole design of how like the again the whole package the way it comes together.

[00:40:40] I just think it's one of the most unbeatable out there, but it's just got a couple things in there with the jankiness of it.

[00:40:50] Jake, you mentioned like some of the design of some of like the levels and the areas can be kind of maddening.

[00:40:59] There's some kind of flat bosses and there's a few other things in there that I just think it makes it go down the list.

[00:41:07] But again, this is compare this is unequivocally like one of the best games I think ever made.

[00:41:12] But for my list, I felt number three.

[00:41:16] I felt number three.

[00:41:19] Okay, yeah. I and see in comments like yours make me want to play Bloodborne again and do all of the optional areas because I think if you just do the kind of playthrough that I did, I don't I didn't get all of that.

[00:41:36] Although I will agree that the player being like the hunter is far and away.

[00:41:42] The coolest designation.

[00:41:44] It's it's super cool.

[00:41:47] And then like, dude, this is the only game of the FromSoft games where I actually started reading.

[00:41:52] I went down a Reddit rabbit hole.

[00:41:55] Oh, nice to read.

[00:41:58] The the fiction of the world that like people had parsed together from the game from like comments from the developers from like reading, you know, text things like in the game and people had crafted like these narrative and in the ending like depending on which ending you get is just absolutely wild in terms of like the mix of sci fi and sort of Gothic horror without spoiling too much.

[00:42:27] It's just the weirdest crap that I've ever seen.

[00:42:30] And I just frickin love.

[00:42:32] I just I love that they just go that hard with it.

[00:42:36] Nice.

[00:42:38] Okay, last thing I'll say about Bloodborne.

[00:42:39] I promise if they they're never they're not going to this is not a prediction.

[00:42:45] This is pure speculation.

[00:42:47] But if they made a Bloodborne two, it could I could potentially see that being like top on my list.

[00:42:55] But we'll just leave that there.

[00:42:58] My number three.

[00:42:59] Sorry, did you have something to say to that?

[00:43:01] No, I just do.

[00:43:03] I don't understand why they're not making Bloodborne two.

[00:43:06] I don't understand why it's not out yet.

[00:43:08] They're literally leaving millions upon billions on the table.

[00:43:12] Every pod video game podcast that's ever been created has had this discussion so we don't need to have it but it's still.

[00:43:20] Yeah.

[00:43:21] Anyway, moving on my number three.

[00:43:24] This one a lot of bias in here.

[00:43:27] Dark Souls three.

[00:43:28] This is a game that got me into Souls games.

[00:43:30] This is a game that I have beat the most out of any from software game.

[00:43:34] It's probably the one even though it's been quite a while since I played it.

[00:43:37] It's probably the one that I know most intimately.

[00:43:39] I could tell you where different items are.

[00:43:41] I 100 percent in this game.

[00:43:43] So all achievements which means I had to play through new game, new game plus and new game plus plus to get a bunch of items.

[00:43:50] I have way too much information on this game stored in my brain.

[00:43:53] But the reason that has flaws though, it's not my number one.

[00:43:57] So I will discuss those as well.

[00:43:59] But starting with boss design.

[00:44:02] DS three has way more hits and misses.

[00:44:06] I just think when it comes to the caliber of bosses, the bar is higher in Dark Souls three.

[00:44:13] And this is including DLC bosses as well.

[00:44:17] There are some that, yeah, not super great.

[00:44:20] The Deacon's boss fight, dude.

[00:44:22] No, nobody wants to do that boss fight.

[00:44:25] I'm sorry.

[00:44:26] And there are others, you know, like the Wyvern fight, you know, whatever.

[00:44:31] But I would say that bosses in this game are so, so freaking good.

[00:44:35] Lord of Cinder, Soul of Cinder at the end of the game is still one of my favorite from software boss fights.

[00:44:41] I'm a huge fan of just like pretty much all them.

[00:44:43] Pontiff.

[00:44:44] I'm a fan of all direction as well.

[00:44:46] And I'm a really big fan of Champion Gundyr.

[00:44:48] That might be one of my favorite boss fights, which is not super common as far as boss fights go.

[00:44:54] But yeah, I just think it's got such a high standard of quality when it comes to the bosses.

[00:45:01] And unlike other Souls games, it gets better and better the further you get into the game.

[00:45:05] The bosses increase, I think, in quality.

[00:45:08] World design slash art direction.

[00:45:10] This is by far the weakest, I think, point of Dark Souls 3.

[00:45:14] Yeah, I agree.

[00:45:16] I agree with you.

[00:45:17] Like going back and before I watched all the videos and read all the things on Dark Souls 3, the story is just too obtuse.

[00:45:26] Even for I think from software standards, it doesn't quite do enough to draw you in to read the lore tabs like you were talking about with Bloodborne Cameron.

[00:45:37] This game is by far the most linear, which I actually don't think is necessarily a problem.

[00:45:43] But it really loses, I think some of the magic that even Dark Souls 2 has when I think when it comes to its world design and this sort of semi-pseudo openness that is inviting to the game.

[00:45:57] There are branching paths in Dark Souls 3, but they aren't nearly as effective as like the Dark Souls 1 world as well.

[00:46:06] So yeah, world design.

[00:46:08] I'm sorry. It's a bit flat.

[00:46:10] It suffers badly from an abuse of grayscale as well.

[00:46:14] So just I think that's by far the biggest letdown.

[00:46:18] Now, because it's more linear, I think that does open up some really cool level design opportunities.

[00:46:25] I think one of the levels that's really slept on is actually Cathedral of the Deep.

[00:46:29] I think that your first time playing through that, going through the cemetery, unlocking a bunch of shortcuts.

[00:46:35] There's really only one bonfire in the entire area.

[00:46:39] But the way that you get shortcuts to come back to that bonfire, I think are really smartly used and designed.

[00:46:45] And I think that's a fantastic example of how big a level can be because in that game you can go up to the rafters, which is entirely optional.

[00:46:53] You can explore more of the cemetery, which is optional.

[00:46:55] So I think really the level design is top notch, but also a bit uneven overall compared to the main.

[00:47:03] Like when you take all of the levels into context, right?

[00:47:07] I think returning to Anor Londo was cool for sure.

[00:47:11] But yeah, like if Erythiel, Ethereal, I always get this one wrong.

[00:47:17] Erythiel dungeon like dude, I don't know.

[00:47:20] Sure, there's some smart shortcuts in there, but it doesn't incentivize exploration like a bunch of the other levels.

[00:47:25] And then finally, combat mechanics.

[00:47:28] I think that Dark Souls 3 is like the most refined version of combat mechanics in the Souls.

[00:47:36] Like when we were talking about the trilogy and a lump Elden Ring in here as well, except for the fact that there are not a whole lot of super viable options.

[00:47:48] I think when it comes to Dark Souls 3, your weapon selection is quite limited if you actually want to feel like you're making progress in the game, despite how refined each weapon type feels.

[00:47:59] So a bit mixed there.

[00:48:01] So I am grateful that I'm able to look at this sort of in retrospect and not entirely based on my love for this game.

[00:48:08] I think it does have some serious flaws, but it is super fantastic.

[00:48:12] And I hold boss design to be like one of the more important categories.

[00:48:15] And DS3 nails that for me.

[00:48:17] Getting even harder.

[00:48:22] Last two, so this is going to reveal my number one.

[00:48:26] A lot of internal debate on this, but ultimately, number two.

[00:48:34] It's crazy to say this.

[00:48:37] It's absolutely wild for me to say this, but my number two is Elden Ring.

[00:48:43] All right, Cameron, hold on.

[00:48:44] Keep it rolling.

[00:48:45] I have to go do something upstairs really quick, but I'll be back in a few minutes.

[00:48:49] Yeah, so Elden Ring.

[00:49:01] Elden Ring is 10 out of 10 Masterpiece, one of the greatest games of all time in my book and I think many other books.

[00:49:13] Incredible world design.

[00:49:16] Scale that is totally like unprecedented.

[00:49:22] Completely open world.

[00:49:25] So many secrets, so many bosses, so many incredible fights and encounters.

[00:49:33] Incredible amount of build crafting and interesting like builds that you can do in the game.

[00:49:39] They stuffed so much stuff in this game and then they up the Annie with the production.

[00:49:46] Everything looks fantastic.

[00:49:48] The lighting, the art direction, even like texture resolution and kind of those more graphical bells and whistles here.

[00:49:56] They did so much with this game to up the Annie from their previous games graphically.

[00:50:02] It's kind of insane when you look at it.

[00:50:05] If you just stand there and just look at this game from a lighting and an environment perspective, just standing out in the world, it just looks incredible.

[00:50:17] And then combat closer to Dark Souls 3, but obviously with quite a few upgrades in terms of magic and weapon abilities and how you can combine those things.

[00:50:29] Yeah, I mean unequivocally like one of the best games ever made, a 10 out of 10 Masterpiece.

[00:50:37] I think where it maybe fell off for me and the reason it fell to number two is because there's something about, again, I want to say the words.

[00:50:50] Compared to my number one pick, which you already know what it is, precision in combat.

[00:50:59] Precision.

[00:51:04] I'm not saying like it's imprecise.

[00:51:05] It's more precise than like the vast, vast majority of action games like in its class, right?

[00:51:10] But just not quite as good as my number one pick.

[00:51:17] And then I think this is this is like sort of maybe a dumb complaint, but I do think it gets long winded.

[00:51:24] Like it's almost at a certain point I do think it becomes almost too big.

[00:51:29] And I don't and I'm maybe one of those few people who thinks there's a certain size where games get too big.

[00:51:37] And I actually hit that size.

[00:51:39] I hit that with Elden Ring.

[00:51:40] I did get to a place where I was like, I'm ready to be done with this experience.

[00:51:44] And I think that that's OK.

[00:51:46] I think too often the gamer mindset is like more is better.

[00:51:51] And there's this like there's this conversation out in the wild of like bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger.

[00:51:57] And maybe the average Joe who plays a game feels like the average gamer Joe kind of feels like, well, I'm not getting my money's worth.

[00:52:07] I'm not getting like the like I'm not getting my money's worth if it's not massive, if it's not huge.

[00:52:13] And I do think Elden Ring got like a teeny bit too big.

[00:52:16] Now, the quality of that size is crazy.

[00:52:20] Oh, yeah. It's absolutely wild.

[00:52:23] But just like any huge buffet, no matter how amazing every single one of the dishes are, you're going to reach a point where you're just too.

[00:52:33] You literally can't keep going or you're going to start throwing up.

[00:52:36] You can't taste all of the amazing dishes.

[00:52:39] And that's a place that I hit with Elden Ring.

[00:52:41] Now, that's like a crazy complaint to have.

[00:52:43] But again, we're talking about like a 10, 10 out of 10 game here, right?

[00:52:47] Doing a ranking. So that's why it fell down for me.

[00:52:50] But overall, I mean, my goodness, Elden Ring is just a ridiculous achievement.

[00:52:58] I'm actually curious if we'll ever see anything akin to it ever again.

[00:53:04] Oh, I like that.

[00:53:05] I have plenty to say on Elden Ring, but it's not my number two.

[00:53:12] Now, this could change for me.

[00:53:14] It could be a coin toss.

[00:53:15] It could change on how I'm feeling.

[00:53:17] But Sekiro Shadows Die Twice is going to be my number two pick of when it comes up from software games.

[00:53:24] And I have very little to dislike about Sekiro.

[00:53:30] And but here we'll talk about it.

[00:53:32] Boss design.

[00:53:33] Oh, my gosh.

[00:53:34] This game has some of the greatest bosses ever.

[00:53:38] It has what I think is the best sort of mob like a boss with a ton of ads gimmick that kind of boss.

[00:53:47] It's got the best one.

[00:53:48] Like the Dragon Boss fight is infinitely cooler than the Deacon's boss fight from Dark Souls 3, for example.

[00:53:56] Or there's this Skeleton King's fight in Dark Souls 2, for example.

[00:54:01] Right. Like that Dragon Boss fight, even though people are like, oh, well, it's easy and it's gimmicky.

[00:54:05] But do that set piece is infinitely better than so many gimmick boss fights.

[00:54:10] Right. Love that boss fight.

[00:54:14] The the true endings.

[00:54:17] Oh, my gosh. Like Immortal Severance ending that final boss fight with Isshin is freaking gnarly.

[00:54:26] Right. And but the sense of victory and accomplishment when I finally beat that boss for the first time, I was so exhausted that I couldn't even like cheer or like shout.

[00:54:38] Yay. I beat the boss.

[00:54:39] Like I just kind of hung my shoulders and set the controller down.

[00:54:42] And I was like, it is done.

[00:54:43] Right. I was Frodo Mount Doom.

[00:54:45] Right. That boss fight was super, super fantastic.

[00:54:50] Now, I know I'm kind of straying off the path a little bit here.

[00:54:53] While I love Sekiro's bosses, I hated, hated is way too strong a word.

[00:54:59] I disliked or did not find enjoyment in so many of the mini bosses.

[00:55:04] The mini bosses felt way too much to be of a slog for me compared to the bosses.

[00:55:10] But yeah, bosses, I think were amazing.

[00:55:12] The world design is super cool.

[00:55:14] Thank goodness that they discovered the color red.

[00:55:17] So now everything was gray.

[00:55:19] You could have some more color into the world.

[00:55:22] I love the music of Sekiro as well.

[00:55:24] I just kind of love this idea of who Sekiro is, who Wolf is and what Wolf is trying to accomplish in this world and sort of what his responsibility is.

[00:55:35] I think I thought it was while it didn't innovate necessarily too much on like kind of the trope of Japanese honor.

[00:55:43] Right. I felt like it was done well.

[00:55:45] And it was a story that was much less obtuse than other ones as well.

[00:55:50] So good world design level design.

[00:55:53] I think Sekiro just kind of does DS3 better, right?

[00:55:56] It's a very linear game.

[00:55:58] There are branching paths, but Sekiro just does it better and I think in every capacity.

[00:56:04] And then finally for combat mechanics.

[00:56:06] Oh my gosh, dude.

[00:56:07] Oh my gosh.

[00:56:09] This game is so hyper aggressive and you must master the parry.

[00:56:13] But the abilities that you get in conjunction with that, there's actually I think a fair amount of build crafting in a game that is so rigid compared to other Souls games.

[00:56:24] But yeah, I just the combat is superior to everything else.

[00:56:29] Make Kiri count or forever.

[00:56:35] Yeah. Sekiro.

[00:56:37] I mean, that brings me right into my number one pick, which is Sekiro and I'll explain why it's number one.

[00:56:43] This is the best combat system in any video game ever created.

[00:56:48] Boom.

[00:56:51] And the only Souls game that you can't cheese.

[00:56:59] Because in all those other games, you can build craft your way to something that you can just decimate pretty much every boss.

[00:57:09] Right. Am I wrong about that, Jake?

[00:57:12] For the most part.

[00:57:14] In Sekiro, you can try to grind XP, but the diminishing returns hit so hard.

[00:57:20] Yeah, I just think Sekiro forces you.

[00:57:24] It's the only game I think really I mean all the Dark Souls games do it to a certain extent, which is why they have, you know, the, you know, it's the whole difficulty and challenge thing.

[00:57:34] But Sekiro says to you, you must master this mechanic or you cannot finish this game.

[00:57:43] You must like you have to and it's so precise.

[00:57:48] It is so incredibly precise.

[00:57:50] Every action you take in that game, the game does exactly what you tell it to in that combat system.

[00:57:57] Exactly.

[00:57:59] And you have to.

[00:58:01] It is so precise, which makes encounters and boss fights and even kind of your basic encounter so incredible.

[00:58:09] There's no there's no superior feeling.

[00:58:12] I think the best feeling I've ever had in any video game is coming to a place in doing that final Isshin boss fight and absolutely dominating that boss fight.

[00:58:24] Just dominating that guy.

[00:58:26] Where it's a fight where if you just drop someone in to play that who's like really good at video games and you dropped him into that fight, they would get destroyed.

[00:58:34] Just absolutely destroyed.

[00:58:36] I mean they would be standing there for hours and hours and hours and hours.

[00:58:40] No other game has like given me that feeling before of just absolute like mastery and precision.

[00:58:47] And then like you wrap all the stuff around it.

[00:58:50] Incredible boss fights.

[00:58:52] Super cool.

[00:58:54] You know, again, kind of feudal Japanese setting.

[00:58:57] There's a pattern here.

[00:58:58] We're just talking about Assassin's Creed and Ghost of Sushi.

[00:59:00] I really like this.

[00:59:02] I think I really like that setting.

[00:59:03] So super funky.

[00:59:07] Like there's also just the dark, you know, the from soft fantasy, like freaky sci-fi fantasy weirdness also imbued into this game.

[00:59:18] Like in so many places.

[00:59:20] That's just so fun.

[00:59:21] And then the other thing is humanoid boss fights.

[00:59:24] I just freaking love them.

[00:59:26] I love fighting dudes.

[00:59:28] Just basic ace dudes.

[00:59:32] And I think I really like just fighting dudes more than like ginormous beast because there's I think, I don't know.

[00:59:38] I don't know why that is.

[00:59:40] Not because they're any easier and especially in Sekiro.

[00:59:43] Like you'll get your trash handed to you by two in particular.

[00:59:48] I can think of like the I think the first like get good boss fight is Lady.

[00:59:55] What's her name?

[00:59:56] The Lady Butterfly, dude.

[00:59:57] Lady Butterfly.

[00:59:59] That fight is like, hey, like did you figure out the mechanics yet?

[01:00:03] Because if you didn't like screw you.

[01:00:06] Like anyway, that's my number one pick.

[01:00:10] It is linear.

[01:00:11] It's not open.

[01:00:13] I don't care about that at all.

[01:00:14] I like the condensed package.

[01:00:16] And then the other thing is like, yes, there is build coffee in this game, but I like when the game design is, hey, we created this combat system and we condensed it down to like what we felt were what we wanted the player to experience.

[01:00:32] Right.

[01:00:33] And instead of creating like sort of this endlessly flexible system of combat and then trying to adapt the rest of the game to it.

[01:00:41] In this case, it's like, hey, we built the game around this like very specific set of mechanics.

[01:00:48] And I love that.

[01:00:49] I love when the designer just chooses for me, to be honest.

[01:00:53] And they made that decision.

[01:00:54] They kind of make that decision for you.

[01:00:56] Now a lot of players, obviously they're going to disagree with that.

[01:00:59] A lot of players don't want that.

[01:01:00] They will want the endless flexibility.

[01:01:02] In this case, I gave the one up over Elden Ring because I want the designer to like tell me, hey, this is this is like the choice that we made and then and we're going to force you to master like the tools that we've given you.

[01:01:15] But they do so to such a level of precision.

[01:01:19] That's why it's my number one.

[01:01:21] I like I like how you talk about that because it's true.

[01:01:25] Sekiro comes down to left button and right button, right?

[01:01:30] Parry and attack and all of the abilities because it's more skill trees than it is like build crafting in some ways.

[01:01:37] Right.

[01:01:39] It all comes down to how do you master these two buttons?

[01:01:43] And I agree in that them taking out stamina and then introducing a posture bar was another just a plus combat mechanic decision.

[01:01:53] Right.

[01:01:54] That's how that game works.

[01:01:56] But it's not it's not my number one.

[01:01:58] My number one is Elden Ring.

[01:02:01] Maybe this is a little biased because we've got the DLC coming in just about a month.

[01:02:05] Sellout.

[01:02:08] Whoa, there.

[01:02:10] Let me just is the hardcore Dark Souls crowd of which you are very much a part of.

[01:02:16] Are they in agreement with you?

[01:02:18] Is Elden Ring the number one choice?

[01:02:20] Is that like far and away like the voted as it made clear that like this is the preeminent Souls game from soft Souls game?

[01:02:29] I would say a long time diehard Souls fans still are going to pick Dark Souls one and they're still going to pick Bloodborne.

[01:02:37] So there's still biased.

[01:02:39] OK, I was just curious about that.

[01:02:40] I think I think a lot of them are going to pick Dark Souls one and Bloodborne.

[01:02:44] However, I think if you were newer to the Souls formula, you will pick Elden Ring.

[01:02:49] So I think that diehard for sure.

[01:02:51] Right. Yeah, the diehards are long term fans to people who've been playing since 2009.

[01:02:55] They're probably going to pick Dark Souls one or Bloodborne, right?

[01:02:58] Which is unequivocally a better game than all those because it built.

[01:03:03] Sorry, you go ahead.

[01:03:04] This is your your show.

[01:03:07] Elden Ring. Here's why I picked Elden Ring when it comes to boss design.

[01:03:13] Some of the best bosses at From Software has ever designed.

[01:03:17] I would say the Godfrey Horlough fight.

[01:03:20] So just to remind you all, this is the second to last major boss fight before you take on Radegon slash Elden Beast.

[01:03:29] I love this boss fight.

[01:03:32] I think it is one of the best examples of how From Software comes up with incredible boss fights.

[01:03:40] I actually at one point after I had beat the game, I just I was always there as a summon because I loved that boss fight so much.

[01:03:49] And I wasn't quite let me solo her status on that boss fight.

[01:03:54] But I felt like I was actually tallying at one point.

[01:03:59] I think over the span of a few nights, I was summoned into that boss fight 20 times.

[01:04:03] And I want to say that I saw victory over half.

[01:04:08] I will say like 12 of those were victory because I just know that boss fight super well and I love it a ton.

[01:04:14] Anyway, the bosses in this game are just freaking incredible.

[01:04:17] I think it's like Dark Souls 3 in that sure there's some unevenness in boss design, but overall the standard the quality level is just super high.

[01:04:25] Now, I will say I'm mostly talking about the big boys and girls when it comes to these boss fights.

[01:04:32] The mainline boss fights, the great remembrance boss fights.

[01:04:35] Those ones are fantastic where Elden Ring suffers a bit is like dual pumpkin head in a tiny basement.

[01:04:42] That boss fight sucks.

[01:04:44] It's not fun because you're fighting against a tiny room.

[01:04:47] You're fighting a camera and you're just getting absolutely clobbered by two hyper aggressive stupid enemies.

[01:04:53] Right.

[01:04:54] So some of the unevenness, if we want to take into account all of the boss fights in the game.

[01:04:59] Holy cow. Elden Ring has some real doozies that are no fun.

[01:05:03] Right. But it also has it features some of the some of the studios highest highs also when it comes to boss fights.

[01:05:10] World design art direction.

[01:05:12] Oh my gosh. If they ever remake Dark Souls 3, make it look like this game.

[01:05:16] Put some green in there.

[01:05:17] Put put some yellow shrubs.

[01:05:20] Yeah, put some shrubs in there.

[01:05:23] Like four. I'm asking for four shrubs.

[01:05:25] Like please something.

[01:05:27] This game is gorgeous and the collective world of gaming was at peace when this game came out

[01:05:34] and we could explore and sort of see more that the world has to offer.

[01:05:38] Turns out it has an extremely robust dungeon, you know, underlayer underground system.

[01:05:44] There's an entire city.

[01:05:45] There's a night sky underground.

[01:05:47] And just as you explore and go on and go on and find more and text your friends about this new thing that you found,

[01:05:54] this world is just absolutely phenomenal.

[01:05:57] It also happens to be one of the more straightforward stories, believe it or not.

[01:06:02] You as the tarnished what you're supposed to do.

[01:06:05] You're kind of taking down the Elden Lord, which honestly comes back from software.

[01:06:10] From software, nearly all of their games deal with just like obsession and greed, obsession to the point of corruption.

[01:06:17] Right. Those are like main themes.

[01:06:18] And I actually think that Elden Ring actually presented that in a digestible way.

[01:06:23] So, yeah, fantastic level design.

[01:06:27] Top notch for an open world game.

[01:06:29] I think it's remarkable how they balanced difficulty just in the open world and sort of pacing as you progress through the open world.

[01:06:37] The bottlenecks that they put in there were mostly just bosses functioning as a gatekeeper from one area to the next.

[01:06:43] If you beat the boss, then the game's like, all right, come on in.

[01:06:46] Right. You don't really have to cheese your way necessarily into different areas.

[01:06:51] Excuse me. There are also the sort of legacy dungeons are really cool.

[01:06:55] I think Volcano Manor is a place that's designed incredibly well.

[01:06:59] I'm actually really, really big fan of shoot.

[01:07:02] I'm blanking on it. It's like the poison castle.

[01:07:05] Too many poison swamps in this game, but there's like a poison in the Atlas Plateau.

[01:07:09] There's another area with which I thought had super cool level design.

[01:07:14] Then there are the small dungeons, which are kind of just like really basic dungeons, but they're varied enough to kind of keep keep you interested.

[01:07:22] So level design is really good.

[01:07:24] And then combat mechanics.

[01:07:26] Again, if one of my problems with Dark Souls 3 is that you're kind of locked into a few different weapon types, Elden Ring manages somehow to say,

[01:07:34] you know what? Every single weapon type has some viable options and some advantages.

[01:07:40] And so just kind of go with what works for you.

[01:07:42] They I think this is by far the best magic system that From Software has ever created in any other games.

[01:07:49] And this is reflected, I think, in the boss design because you can go into pretty much any boss.

[01:07:55] You could be mainly focused. You could be sorcery focused, you know, ranged focus.

[01:07:59] And the boss will have something to answer. Right.

[01:08:02] And so bosses, I think, are designed beautifully to accommodate every single type of build.

[01:08:08] So yeah, Elden Ring is my top one. Love it. Super excited for the DLC.

[01:08:14] The final thing I'll say is that I probably do agree with you.

[01:08:17] Well, I mean, I do agree with you, Cameron, in that my first time playing through this game, I couldn't get enough of it.

[01:08:22] But I've beat Elden Ring three times now in the subsequent playthroughs.

[01:08:27] I went from like 70 percent exploration to like 30 percent exploration to like 20.

[01:08:33] The game is massive.

[01:08:35] And when you have a game of this size, despite the quality being so high across the board, it gets long winded and it gets tedious.

[01:08:45] And no one is playing this game or very few people are playing this game multiple times and doing every single thing that this game has to offer.

[01:08:53] So I think it actually is relatively low replayability in terms of it is exhausting to get through the entire game,

[01:08:59] has high replayability in terms of weapon diversity and you can do a brand new run with a different build.

[01:09:05] But there is some sort of tough act to balance there because it is open world.

[01:09:11] And that is it. The unequivocal ranking of Dark Souls games.

[01:09:21] Yeah. So number one for Jake and I, and for me it was Sekiro for Jake.

[01:09:26] It was Elden Ring. And if you listened to this podcast for a while, you probably could have made that guess.

[01:09:32] You probably could have figured that out. Yeah.

[01:09:34] You probably could have made that guess. But yeah, that's the official ranking.

[01:09:38] A little bit of a one off another list episode.

[01:09:43] If you like this type of episode, sound off. Let us know.

[01:09:47] Let us know the discord. Let us know on Twitter slash X because we got a lot more ideas.

[01:09:53] But we can we could definitely do more of these lists.

[01:09:57] We already did the top 10 most jacked dudes in video games.

[01:10:03] We did. We've now done Dark Souls, done a few others.

[01:10:07] Some more ideas come down the pipe.

[01:10:10] The one I had that maybe we'll do soon is the most vanilla game characters in gaming.

[01:10:18] Who's the unequivocal gamer protagonist dude?

[01:10:25] We'll save that for a future one.

[01:10:29] But yeah, if you're listening, let us know who you think is the most vanilla gaming protagonist.

[01:10:35] Yeah, I already have the one like my head. I won't spoil it.

[01:10:39] This has been another episode of the period of bonus podcast.

[01:10:41] If you like the show, please leave us a review on your podcast platform of choice.

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[01:10:55] early access to our regular episodes and extended editions when those happen.

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[01:11:05] Jake at Jacob underscore chip to 18 me at mass generic with three S's.

[01:11:11] Follow us there. Come also chat with us in the discord to talk about video games,

[01:11:17] discuss the ongoing's, the news, the all sorts of stuff, weightlifting, college football,

[01:11:23] college football and games because there's a new college football game coming.

[01:11:26] So you can talk about both at the same time if you want.

[01:11:28] Thank you so much for listening and have a great night.

[01:11:34] Thank you.